Pat Farmer’s Middle East “Peace Run”

Patrick Farmer’s purpose for The Peace Run is to unite all people through his footsteps regardless of borders, and to encourage as many people as possible to simply run with him and not be concerned with what country any of us come from, but to simply draw on our commonality and love of running and humanity.

Delete all of the following: I have a long and distinguished career in ultra marathon running over the past 30 years. I have also run from the North Pole to the South Pole via the Americas, a distance of 29,900 km in just 10 months and 13 days in 2011-2012, setting numerous records and supporting the International Red Cross’ work to bring clean water and sanitation to those that don’t have this most basic need.

I was also a member of the Federal Government of Australia between 2001-2010, holding the position of Federal Member for Macarthur, Parliamentary Secretary for Education, Science and Training and Shadow Minister for Sport and Youth.

This run is purely symbolic of unity through sport, and Patrick is not raising funds for particular causes. The message is cause enough. Patrick is hoping to run with thousands of people over the 20 days. He is more than halfway there.

He began his run on May 1, 2014, with the intention to run approximately 80 km per day each day and cover a distance of approximately 1,450 km. He started his journey in Lebanon then to Jordan. He is currently running through Israel with his final days running through the West Bank and into Jeruselum. He encourages local people from sporting groups and schools to run a few kilometres with him along his route.

The aim of this run is to get to as many people from diverse communities and encourage them to join in and break down the barriers, so that they can see that when borders are discarded and prejudice is stripped away through sport and personal achievement then all that is left is humanity.